Matthews Calls West Point the “Enemy Camp”

Those tingles up his leg that MSNBC talker Chris Matthews gets from President Barack Obama (D) have apparently zapped Matthews’ brain. Analyzing Obama’s speech at West Point last night with Rachel Maddow and Keith Olbermann, Matthews observed

“It seems like in this case, there isn’t a lot of excitement. I watched the cadets, they were young kids – men and women who were committed to serving their country professionally it must be said, as officers. And, I didn’t see much excitement. But among the older people there, I saw, if not resentment, skepticism. I didn’t see a lot of warmth in that crowd out there. The president chose to address tonight and I thought it was interesting. He went to maybe the enemy camp tonight to make his case. I mean, that’s where Paul Wolfowitz used to write speeches for, back in the old Bush days. That’s where he went to rabble rouse the “we’re going to democratize the world” campaign back in ’02. So, I thought it was a strange venue.”

So Matthews believes West Point, the first American military academy, is the “enemy camp” and “a strange venue” for their Commander in Chief, the President of the United States, to announce to the country and more specifically to the student and faculty audience who will be directly affected, his plans to increase troop levels in Afghanistan. Confused by his tingling brain and perhaps thinking Obama was refereeing a West Point football game, Matthews spoke of his surprise that a group of “young kids–men and women who were committed to serving their country professionally it must be said” didn’t demonstrate “a lot of excitement” because he “didn’t see a lot of warmth in that crowd out there.” (But Matthews is the sort who notices and finds important what others don’t; eg, Sarah Palin admirers are mainly white. All of these comments reveal much about Matthews but little about the situation.)